Some liquid desiccant air conditioning systems utilize a series of vertical media pads, membranes, or coils in parallel. In some exemplary embodiments, the pads, membranes, or coils are wetted with a liquid desiccant solution and air is pulled through them, for example to cool and dry hot humid air by removing moisture and heat, or to warm and humidify intake air by warming and discharging moisture into it. Some or all of the air may flow through the system and provide a series of tasks to condition the air which will exit into a space or be used for a purpose, for example to cool a room in a home or building or outside a home or building. Some air conditioning systems and LDAC systems have vertical cooling and heating coils or vertical media pads that can be supplemented with a spray washer to pre-condition the incoming air. The incoming air may comprise, for example, air which has been recirculated through a building, outside air, or a mixture of the two.
In most environments, outside air and return or exhaust air includes particulate matter and possibly polluted air, and thus the air being fed into the air conditioner may be contaminated. This incoming air may come in direct contact with the first of the vertical media pads, membranes, or coils, or it may first be passed through a filter. In either case, the air that reaches the first of the media pads, membranes, or the cooling or heating coils is still considered dirty and polluted. In instances where a filter is included, filters may become clogged over time, reducing efficiency of the air conditioner if they are not regularly cleaned or replaced. Replacement filters, in turn, are costly and wasteful. Therefore, a system that first washes the incoming air, eliminating much of the particulate matter and other contaminants before that matter comes into contact with the first vertical media pad, filter, membrane, or coil is advantageous. The particulate matter and other contaminants collected by the fluid may be captured by a strainer or filter on a discharge pipe from the sump. A similar idea is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,306,650, to Slayzak, et al., but the system described in Slayzak has a vertical air stream in the conditioner, is more complicated, and is more costly to implement and maintain because it involves trapping contaminants largely in filter pads which then require changing. No system currently washes and eliminates most of the particulate matter and other contaminants in the incoming horizontal air stream using a fluid, water or liquid desiccant.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need in the art for an LDAC system or conventional air conditioning system including one or more air washers or eliminators in order to optimize the work of both the air washers and the media pads, membranes, or coils, lengthen the life cycle of the media pads, membranes, or coils and ease their maintenance. The present invention satisfies this need.